Allright, first policy post. Time is pretty tight this week, but I wanted to comment on William McGurn's WSJ article yesterday on school choice.
One of the prime beliefs of this blog is more liberty and more choice. When people control their own destinies instead of the government, good things tend to happen. Governments are good at: protecting the common defence, settling contract disputes and (possibly) taking care of those who honestly cannot take care of themselves. The closer the level of government, the more likely they can take on item #3.
School choice is a huge issue today. Choice and the free market rule almost everywhere EXCEPT the most important institution we have in the US. The education market is controlled by teachers unions, textbook companies and complicit local school boards. Generally speaking, if a product is inferior or doesn't work for its customers, another product enters the market and assumes market leadership.
Local, public schools today educate our kids for a industrial society that no longer exists. They teach rote repetitiveness, memorization and linear thinking. Unfortunately, in an information (or post-info) economy, linear thinking puts you at the end of a linear unemployment line. Those who are well compensated today are thinking three steps ahead (strategically), creating new businesses (creative) or killing existing models (destructive). Our schools inhibit all of these tendencies.
So, the solution is to open things up and shake up the education market, right? Especially in poor school districts (like the one I went to) where education is the only way out for anyone who can't dunk or throw a football, right? Not if the unions have anything to do with it.
They convinced Obama and Team to sit by idly while they dismantled the most successful voucher progam in the country, despite POTUS' kind words about shaking up the education system (who owns the White House? U-N-I-O-N-S).
These kids need a chance more than anyone else in the country. The DC schools are an absolute shambles. Money certainly isn't the answer; DC spends more per kid than anyone else (even NYC and Dallas!). Yet unions want $$$, all the time. No accountability, no responsibility...just cash.
Give the kids a chance! Most teachers want kids to succeed; it's a shame their union actively works against them every day.
More freedom. More choice. More opportunity. Better USA.
One of the prime beliefs of this blog is more liberty and more choice. When people control their own destinies instead of the government, good things tend to happen. Governments are good at: protecting the common defence, settling contract disputes and (possibly) taking care of those who honestly cannot take care of themselves. The closer the level of government, the more likely they can take on item #3.
School choice is a huge issue today. Choice and the free market rule almost everywhere EXCEPT the most important institution we have in the US. The education market is controlled by teachers unions, textbook companies and complicit local school boards. Generally speaking, if a product is inferior or doesn't work for its customers, another product enters the market and assumes market leadership.
Local, public schools today educate our kids for a industrial society that no longer exists. They teach rote repetitiveness, memorization and linear thinking. Unfortunately, in an information (or post-info) economy, linear thinking puts you at the end of a linear unemployment line. Those who are well compensated today are thinking three steps ahead (strategically), creating new businesses (creative) or killing existing models (destructive). Our schools inhibit all of these tendencies.
So, the solution is to open things up and shake up the education market, right? Especially in poor school districts (like the one I went to) where education is the only way out for anyone who can't dunk or throw a football, right? Not if the unions have anything to do with it.
They convinced Obama and Team to sit by idly while they dismantled the most successful voucher progam in the country, despite POTUS' kind words about shaking up the education system (who owns the White House? U-N-I-O-N-S).
These kids need a chance more than anyone else in the country. The DC schools are an absolute shambles. Money certainly isn't the answer; DC spends more per kid than anyone else (even NYC and Dallas!). Yet unions want $$$, all the time. No accountability, no responsibility...just cash.
Give the kids a chance! Most teachers want kids to succeed; it's a shame their union actively works against them every day.
More freedom. More choice. More opportunity. Better USA.
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